Mermaid Bait

I used to think that, thanks to my early-childhood training, I wasn't particularly susceptible to advertisements (Except for pizza, man: I see it, I want it.  Every time.  Every damn time.) And when we entered the age of Facebook and Targeted Advertising, I laughed and laughed, because they never showed me anything even remotely appealing.

But I guess after eight+ years of gathering data, they've finally begun to figure me out, because I suddenly find myself... curious.  Curious enough to... click.

And damned if that doesn't occasionally work out in my favor!

Now, if you are a woman, you know what a pain in the ovaries it can be to find a decent swimsuit, let alone a good one.  And if you are a woman with large breasts, you know that the pursuit of decent (hurr hurr) swimwear becomes even more complex, especially if you are in the habit of doing anything beyond laying perfectly still on the beach.  Which, obviously, I am (in the habit of doing "beyond").  So when Mi Ola popped up in my newsfeed, promising me a bikini that would be comfortable and stay put, I was highly skeptical.

But I clicked.

And lo- they had tops specifically designed for large-breasted (and small-rib-caged) women!  And the reviews were... promising.  And the suits were... well, damn cute.  The price was a bit ulcer-inducing, but since I've recently made the decision to start ponying up good money for good quality (and they promised free returns) I went ahead and bit the bullet.

I was torn between two fabrics, so I let Nathan choose: he chose wisely.

The suit arrived surprisingly fast, but when I pulled it out of the packaging I had a brief moment of, "Yeah.  Friggin'.  Right," because it didn't look like it was going to be able to handle my ladies.  But I tried it on anyway...

...and pods of lovely sirens began singing Glory In the Highest, because damn if everything didn't stay in place and look damn good while doing it!  The top was cut lower than I would usually prefer, but that's because usually I'm having to tug the damn thing up all the damn time, and need to leave a little room for "error".  This one doesn't seem like it's going to have that problem... but I'll report back once I've actually worn it in the water.  The way the straps work was like a miracle, because it didn't put any pressure on my neck (a huge problem for me, normally).  The bottoms were also comfortably snug- you know how when you put on a pair of something and you can just tell it's not going to ride up?  Yeah.  Plus they do this cute ruching thing that accentuates the booty.  Good stuff, sisters.

(Seriously, this thing is so good I'm probably going to order a second one in the near future.)

So!  Sometimes advertising works the way it's supposed to, and everybody wins!  Good job, Targeted Advertising!  I'm Proud!

Sinister Little Gentleman

I spent most of the day at home doing lame-boring-domestic things.  But I did take some time to figure out how to set up the sun-shade on the carrier, and then took Neeps for a test walk around the neighborhood.

He showed his appreciation by leaning out from under it (to the left) for the entire walk.  Needless to say, my back is now feeling a bit tweaked, since I didn't have a companion to lure him over to the other side.  Babies, man.  No consideration.

Who needs shade when you can blind passers-by with your dome?

Load Up!

Back when we first got the Subaru, we knew that we'd appreciate its spacious interior, should we ever add a third party to the human portion of the family.

What we didn't realize was that the spacious interior wouldn't actually be spacious enough for two adults, one infant, and one 70lb pigbull and all our stuff.  Not for multi-day trips, anyway.  Or, rather, it's spacious, but not comfortable.  Especially for the pigbull, crammed in the cargo area as she is.  And there's no room for us to change a diaper in the shelter of the car.  Or get to anything with anything resembling convenience.

A few weeks back my brother and co came for a visit, and when they pulled up I noticed that their Subaru was sporting a fancy new cargo box (they have one less pigbull, but one extra kid, soooo...)

"That's frigging brilliant!" I yelled, possibly before I even said, "Hello!"

They left, and I started researching.  And then I started prowling for the best deals.  And then, because we have a long trip up to Lara's coming super soon, I decided it was time to eschew deals and just take advantage of my REI dividends (which were, um, embarrassingly high this past year).

So we declared today, "Going into Portland Day" (yes, it's become an Event.  Blame the extreme increase in traffic over the past decade) and then Nathan casually mentioned that Chick-fil-A has branch in Clackamas, not too far from the REI, and our plans were solidified.

 We got a super-nice salesperson to help us out, and since he was normally a rock-climbing guy, he was pretty thrilled that we'd already done all of our research, and only needed help wrangling our box of choice out to/on top of the car.

(Of course, there was a minor debacle with the one we purchased having a key snapped off in the lock... he was mortified, and then extremely grateful by how chill we were about it.  "Some people wouldn't be," he said.  "Yeah, well, some people are jerk faces," I said, wondering who in their right mind would pitch a fit about something like that.  They literally just brought us out a new one, didn't even make us stand in line to "return" it.)

This is the face of a husband who is wondering why the heck I'm taking a photo of him installing a cargo box.  Or possibly he is gauging my size and comparing it to the interior volume.  Hmmm...

There had been conflicting reports on Teh Interwebz as to whether or not the one we wanted would still allow the hatch to open all the way, but it totally does.  Woo!

So we drove off into the noon-day sun, having rendered ourselves even more PNW as frick.  I can't wait to put it to use next week!

Bonus adorable baby photo.

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Patriotic Pals on Parade

We drove up to Eatonville today, to spend Independence Day with Nathan's sister and her family.  I feel really fortunate that they're currently near enough for us to do Holiday Day Trips.  I didn't have any cousins until I was 13 (and I topped out at two cousins, total) so it's very special to me that a) Neeps has eleven (so far), b) several of them are close enough for him to actually spend time with on a semi-regular basis, and c) the older ones are so sweet and loving towards him (the ones closest to his age tend to be a little more bloodthirsty.  Can't blame them, really: limited resources, and all that.)  Few things are more heartwarming than watching my siblings' children play with mine.

But that's not the point of this post!  The point of this post is that one of the 4th of July activities that we participated in as a family was representing Hike It Baby in the Eatonville Parade!  I'm pretty sure it was my first time being in a parade (and certainly Neeps's), and it was quite fun*.

Lined up and ready to go (behold my glorious leggings: SUPER patriotic!)

Yep, nursing boobs = wearing a sports bra to make my go-to party dress family-friendly.

You'll notice Nathan isn't in any of the pictures- that's because he was (shockingly) the photographer, and circling about our group like an inquisitive shark.

Look at that waving action!

Parading is hard work.

After the parade we had a family picnic, where I carefully fed Neeps the food of his ancestors: GF fried chicken, potato salad, and watermelon.  And Cheerios, because what's an 8-month-old's meal without Cheerios.





*The other great thing about today was it gave me a chance to try out our new hiking pack, the bright red Escape by Phil&Ted.  (please notice I matched my lipstick to it)  I liked it pretty well, but as with most adjustable packs, I ran into the problem of my torso being just a little too small for the smallest setting.  Still, it was a lot better than any other ones we've tried, so I look forward to using it out in nature very soon!

Tastes Like (One of My Former) Home(s)

Yesterday was utter rubbish.  I'm super glad I'm past the worst of the illness, but I'm still feeling more or less like a wrung-out rag.  I probably pushed a little too hard today, even tho' all we did was go down to REI to try out hiking packs to carry Neeps in (turns out my torso is so ridiculously short that only one of the three models could be made small enough to fit me, and that one was not actually comfortable for me to wear.  The search continues.) and then head a little further afield to get some delicious Chick-Fil-A.

I say "further afield" but that's almost ludicrous when you realize that, until today, we would have had to go all the way down to freaking California to get any.  And now we just have to drive like 45 minutes!  And soon we'll only have to drive like 20, because it's coming to our very own town!  Whee!  But it's good that it will be on the other side of town, because otherwise I would be eating it entirely too often, and since eating it requires me to take one of my Special Gluten Pills, I really should keep it a treat rather than a staple.

Still.  It's nice that it will be a more frequent treat than once-every-few-years-when-we're-in-Alabama.

Responsibility

One of the downsides to camping is that afterwards you have to do all that post-camping stuff, like drying/airing out your tent.

so much material

Do You Want to Touch My New Callus?

I'll admit- I've been in a funk these past couple of days.  A lots-of-naughty-words kind of funk.  But all that changed today, and I'm pretty sure I know the reason why.

"Reasons", I should say.

The first is that, after a week of eating not-so-clean, I've gotten things back on track these past couple of days.  Also I got back into going to bed at a reasonable hour, which means that I've actually gotten full nights' sleep these past few nights.  This morning I got up when the sun woke me, at 0645, which is what time I'm supposed to get up, but never do.  So I had almost eight hours of sleep and felt fantastic, and I didn't have to rush out the door which meant I got my sun sals in, and even had time to drink a cup of tea with Nathan.  I mean luxury.

Work was work, but my afternoon walk was glorious- it was warm enough that I didn't need my fleece.  In fact it was so warm that after work I changed into my climbing clothes (t-shirt and a pair of yoga capris) and walked down to the gym that way.

I'd have to say, however, that climbing was definitely what pushed today over the top.  I got there and had a friendly chat session with my favorite lady worker, then did a 5.9 on the auto-belay that had thwarted me last week.  As I later explained to Nathan, doing it wasn't "easy", per se, but it felt right.  I felt in control of myself and my movements, whereas last week I just sort of scrambled and flailed (and didn't make it to the top).  So that was a really great way to start out my session.  Once I got down I chatted with my friend again, this time about the women's technique clinic she's going to be teaching (and I'm going to be taking) and then a fellow climber (who'd admired one of my yoga poses earlier) came over and offered to be belay-partners with me.  That was really nice, because he was much more advanced than I, and I was able to observe him and learn- plus he coached me some (after asking if I wanted it).  So I got in quite a few climbs today, and felt like I made some real progress (although I really need to get to the gym more than once a week if I really want to improve).  And then when Nathan came to pick me up he signed up for the belay class, because his birthday gift to me is learning to be my belay partner.  Hooray!  What an excellent husband!

I did eventually give up on that 5.10 (for now), but not until I'd swung around on the rope for a great deal longer than my belay partner probably thought I would...

On the drive home I was chattering about today's good experiences, and I said, "Look!  I got a new callus on my pinkie today!  Do you want to touch it?  Go on, touch it!"  (he did not want to touch it).  C'mon: I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who gets stoked about new calluses (in fact I distinctly remember my fellow college crew teammates being super stoked about calluses).

Dinner was fabulous (thanks again to excellent husband), and afterwards we went down to REI to pick up my new hiking shoes for Ireland.  That's right, Ireland: we're going in September.  Hooray!

Jiggity Jig, and All That

Do you know what's awesome? Wearing jeans is awesome, and a special privilege. Why? Because you don't wear jeans when you're packing light and in situations where you wash things in sinks. Nor do you wear heavy cotton shirts. I'm wearing both today, because I'm back home in Birmingham (Alabama, that is) and it is (as previously indicated) pretty freakin' awesome.

Our holiday was really great- but I won't get too into that here, since I'm about to go back and post what I wrote while I was gone. It may take a while to get them all up, because right now they're in a sort of raw, "We did this, then this, then this," form, whereas I would like to put them into Witty Anecdotal form. Preferably with photos, but since Nate has approximately 1300 of them to process, that may take even longer.

What I will do is give some of my overall (ie, random) thoughts...

London is full of fabulous things to see, and you'd really need a few years to do them all justice. The people, however, leave a wee bit to be desired (one little old lady actually drew away from me in narrow-eyed suspicion when I smiled at her. Sadly, her reaction really wasn't that much more extreme than most...). In my opinion Edinburgh, although less brimming with Iconic Structures, is overall the far superior city, as are its denizens. I don't know... Scotland just felt like more of a home place to me. That's not to say I didn't thoroughly love the Lake Distric of Cumbria (I truly, truly did) but there was just something soothing about the Scottish countryside... an odd word to apply to craggy, windswept mountains, but true nonetheless. As far as London goes, Nathan and I both loved the convenience of the Tube (especially those Oyster Cards!)- however we wouldn't want to live in an area with the requisite population-density to require it.

We learned that as much as we love our family (and we do!), such large gatherings are probably better suited for National Parks than urban areas or long bouts of caravan-ing. Also, too many Alpha Personalities on one holiday can get... interesting. But the predicted homicides never actually manifested, so go team! Nathan and I have been discussing the possibility of taking a family trip with my side to Germany... that will have to wait a while, tho. Recovery, and all that.

Furthermore, the word "queue" is awesome, and I don't care what Nathan says to me about sounding pretentious, I'm using it from here on out. It's great fun to holler out, "Queue up!" at a mass of unruly individuals. I did inform a few locals, however, that our "Yield" signs beat the pants off their "Give Way" signs, so I'd say we're equal on the funny words front...

Also, I apparently must look at least a bit Scottish, since I got asked not once but twice for directions while in Edinburgh (one time by an actual Scotsman). I do kind of wish we'd gotten to Wales, to see how I fit in there (good bit of blood from that country- hence the slanty eyes) but ah well... just have to save that for another trip.

My Osprey pack turned out to be a very fine investment indeed (as did the Marmot PreCip jackets), and I must say that I did a perfect job of packing it. What makes me say this, you ask? Because I used every single thing I packed (minus the universal sink-stopper) and didn't wish for anything I didn't bring. So go me, way to pack 13 days of stuff for two people into one bag, and still be able to hump it all over the UK. Which leads me to this; we're in pretty good walking-with-crap-on-our-backs shape now. I hope to somehow capitalize on this as a launching-off place for getting us into superb walking-with-crap-on-our-backs shape. I strongly desire some PCT time... specifically the John Muir Trail. Just think of the photos Nate could churn out of that little experience!

Speaking of which, I'm pretty excited to show off what he got from this holiday. I hope you're equally excited to see them.

Finally, it took me three days to adjust to looking the proper direction while crossing the street, and frankly I'm a bit nervous that I'll have a bit of trouble adjusting back to American standards- I had to remind myself not to get panicky while Jeff was driving us home from the airport yesterday...




(PS; you'll be pleased to know the Rat Babies survived our absence and are just as hale and hearty as ever- big props to my mom or checking in on them!)

Nom Nom Nom Sugar!

I have to say, I thought I knew how miserable I'd been over the past week or so, but the truth is I didn't really understand until today- because today was the day the misery stopped. And the simple absence of pain feels like heaven. I was able to do a BodyFlow class and it felt good- even the strange swelling in my knee is gone (could it have been tied to the bacteria? Who knows...) I've been in a downright jovial mood all day, which has really served to drive home just exactly how bitchy and pissy I've been for the past fortnight. So I apologize, everyone- I wasn't myself. But thanks to all these wonderful drugs in my system, I'm starting to recognize me again. Which means that, in order to be fair, I need to say that the medical establishment doesn't always suck- my PCP is actually pretty great, especially since he saw Nate and I at the same time yesterday morning and pumped us full of antibiotics to get us in travelin' shape by next weekend. And I'm now in a mindset where I can give him credit for that...

So tonight's adventure was a sort of dry-run on our packing for England. We loaded up my new pack with all our day-to-day stuff, and Nate loaded up his camera bag (oh and I slung on my customized purse, as well... still need to get Nate to take a picture of the finished product...) and the two of us headed out into the night air for a bit of a walk/photo-hunt. I wish we had a scale to check, but we both agree that my fully-loaded bag is weighing in between 15-20 lbs, so that's not bad at all- I think I need to work more with the straps to get the fit just right (at the moment I can't seem to get it close enough to my shoulders, which makes it a smidge uncomfortable- maybe I need to redistribute weight?) but for the most part we're golden. And don't feel bad that I'm carrying "everything"... Nate's bag is smaller, but all the equipment shoved in it definitely weighs as much if not more than my bag- plus he's being sweet and carrying my netbook. What a guy! Anyway, having done that goes a long way towards making me feel extra calm about the trip... I'm so friggin' anal retentive...

Still not sure yet how the updating will go while I'm in Merry Ol'. I mean, I know I'll write every day (travelogue-ing it up, babies) but I'm not certain if I'll have a chance to put it online until I'm home again. We shall see...

Oh, by the way- our hunt was successful:

(Not a Peeping Tom, Just Doing a Project)

I'm Miserable, But at Least I Have Stuff

Okay, this allergy nonsense? Needs to stop. It's affecting my ability to sleep, eat, and breathe. Even drinking water is iffy, at this point. As such, I caved in and made an appointment with my doctor for tomorrow morning. My desperation knows no bounds...

On the upside, however, I got a big-A package from REI today! I must say, getting my packages delivered to work is probably the best idea I've had all year. Not only do I ensure that someone is around to receive it, but said receival breaks up the monotony of an otherwise miserable day (due to allergies and my impeded ability to think, not due to the job, per se).

In this package was my lovely new backpack, and you have no idea how hard it was not to immediately stuff that puppy full of reams of paper, put it on, and run around the office shrieking my (sore-throated) delight. Alas, there was a client there, so I had to wait until the end of their appointment, at which point I managed to restrain myself enough that I merely showed it off in a casual manner to my boss, who was gratifyingly impressed. He's a good man.

Also in that package was some underwear, a pair of pants for Nate, and a new dress for me! The color is technically called "aquarium", but I put it on and realized that really- it's surgical scrubs green. Go on, tell me I'm wrong. What's that? You can't? Yeah, I know. But at least it looks good on me...

The other excitement to come my way today was an email rather than a package, but the contents of that email herald the later coming of Loot. Well, not really loot, exactly, but a certificate. A certificate that says I'm officially certified to teach BodyFlow. Woo hoo! I'm quite pleased with my results. Also with the fact that now I can get paid for doing it. That will be highly gratifying.

Somes I Forget That I Can Always Just Straight-Up Blog...

I have started this entry literally half a dozen times now, and I'm still not really sure what I'd like to write about. But I've decided that I'm just going to keep plowing ahead with this one, because it just might turn into something if I do, whereas if I don't I'll just have to start all over again again, and really- I'd like to get this finished.

We went clothes shopping today, which is always an excruciating experience for each of us alone, let alone together. Nathan (as we were leaving the apartment) that we should just go ahead and get our inevitably snippiness out of the way early... Fortunately it did not actually get to that point, but I think that's because we've learned to sort of separate once we hit a store. We managed a decent haul- new khakis and three shirts for him, as well as two shirts and two dresses for me (it was a work-clothes related spree). Both of us are still in dire need of new jeans, but by the time we finished at Belk's (where we found nothing, by the way) we were crabby and done. So we rewarded ourselves by going to Barnes and Noble (I got a moleskine for England- woo!) and then Mountain High Outfitters.

I love MHO. First of all, it's full of stuff that I totally want. Second of all, it's peopled by some particularly great employees. It's almost enough to make me miss working retail- almost. Anyway, I did have an actual purpose (beyond drooling) for going there- I wanted to get fitted for an Osprey pack. I specifically have my eye on an Aura 65, but they didn't have that capacity or my size, so I ended up trying on the next size up, which was still about a billion times more comfortable than my current bag (which is probably literally twenty years old, and definitely over ten). The other bag I'm leaning towards is an Ariel (65 or 75) but they didn't even have any of those in, because they just released a new generation this year. But they're going to call me when they get some in (hopefully next week).

Have I mentioned yet how gleeful I am that this whole trip to England thing is giving me the perfect excuse to buy fabulous new gear? Because I am. So very gleeful. ^_^

Oh, speaking of glee- my brother got his new tattoo today (another of my designs)- I am jealous. I want new ink... but speaking of my designs, here's Nate's photo for today, which is of me personalizing my new purse (stage one, anyway). I did a variation on my tree-tattoo for it, and I'm quite proud... I may put up a picture of the finished product once it's... you know, finished...

Yeah, I think we're done here.